PA daily op-ed: Notre Dame fire is same as “Zionist invasions that desecrate” the Al-Aqsa Mosque

By Nan Jacques Zilberdik and Itamar Marcus

The PLO sees Jews visiting the Temple Mount - Judaism’s holiest site - as similar to Muslims massacring Christians in churches in Sri Lanka during Easter.

The Palestinian National Council - the PLO’s legislative body - has compared “the deviant ideology” behind the mass murder of hundreds of Christians by Muslims in suicide bombings in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday to “the ideology that causes settlers to break into the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.”

In a strategy to try to keep Jews away from the Temple Mount, the Palestinian Authority and its leaders have declared the entire Temple Mount a part of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and exclusively an Islamic site. To support this claim they vilify any presence of Jews on the mount as a “desecration," “defilement," "break-in," or “invasion” of the mosque.

This PA ideology has led to the odious comparison. The Palestinian National Council announced that the murder of more than 250 people in churches and hotels in Sri Lanka is similar to Jews visiting the Temple Mount.

The PNC described the attacks in Sri Lanka as “immoral and contrary to religious and human values,” and similar to the ideology that makes Jewish “settlers” “break in” to the Al-Aqsa Mosque:

“[The PNC] added that the deviant ideology that caused these people to commit their despicable crime against the churches in Sri Lanka is the same ideology that causes settlers to break into the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, do as they please with it, attack the Muslim worshippers, and prevent them from worshipping freely during the Hebrew Passover holiday (refers to West Bank and Gaza Strip crossings being closed during the holiday due to security concerns -Ed.).”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 22, 2019]

The comparison is even more repugnant considering the PA and Fatah’s reactions to the slaughter of 4 Jews worshipping in the Har Nof synagogue in Jerusalem in 2014. Although the PA officially condemned it, Abbas’ advisor called the murders a “heroic operation” and “blessed” the terrorists’ weapons - “your kitchen knives and axes” - while Fatah "welcomed the operation" and "escorted” the terrorist “Martyrs” to “Paradise."

Another hateful comparison was made by the writer of an op-ed in the official PA daily who stated that the fire that devastated the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris earlier this month was similar to the “daily Zionist invasions that desecrate” the Al-Aqsa Mosque”:

"The fire in the historic Notre Dame Cathedral... brings something else to mind - the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest place for Islam and the First Direction of Prayer, is being subjected to fire, daily Zionist invasions that desecrate it, and excavations under and around it that are exposing it to direct daily destruction and danger."

“The [Palestinian] National Council (i.e., the legislative body of the PLO) said in a statement yesterday [April 21, 2019] that what happened in Sri Lanka (refers to series of suicide bombings, nearly 300 murdered; see note below -Ed.) is immoral and contrary to religious and human values, which all determine that the places of worship of all the world’s religions are holy and must be protected - especially considering the fact that these terror attacks were carried out during the Easter celebrations...

[The council] added that the deviant ideology that caused these people to commit their despicable crime against the churches in Sri Lanka is the same ideology that causes settlers to break into the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, do as they please with it, attack the Muslim worshippers, and prevent them from worshipping freely during the Hebrew Passover holiday (refers to West Bank and Gaza Strip crossings being closed during the holiday due to security concerns -Ed.).”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 22, 2019]

Sri Lanka bombings 2019 - A series of suicide bombing attacks took place simultaneously in Sri Lanka in churches and hotels, murdering 290 and wounding over 500, on Easter Sunday, April 21, 2019. The Sri Lankan government has accused the Muslim terrorist organization National Thowheed Jamath of being behind the attacks, although the group has yet to claim responsibility.

The PA and its leaders consider all of the Temple Mount an integral part of the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Therefore they view any presence of Jews on the mount as an “invasion” or a "break-in." It should be noted that Jews who visit the Temple Mount only enter some sections of the open areas, and do not enter the Al-Aqsa Mosque or the Dome of the Rock. Israeli police ban Jewish prayer at the Temple Mount because of threats of violence by Palestinians.

Headline: "The paradox of Notre Dame and the Al-Aqsa Mosque"

"The fire in the historic Notre Dame Cathedral - the most important artistic creation and tourist monument in France - on the evening of April 15 [2019] that continued into the early hours of the morning on [April] 16, that continued for 13 hours, was an event that shook France and the world...

This brings something else to mind - the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest place for Islam and the First Direction of Prayer, is being subjected to fire, daily Zionist invasions that desecrate it, and excavations under and around it (sic., Israel does not excavate under the Temple Mount; see note below) that are exposing it to direct daily destruction and danger. The eternal Palestinian capital, Jerusalem in which are located the honorable mosque, the Church of the Sepulchre, which is more important than the Notre Dame Cathedral, and many mosques, churches, and monasteries that are also being subjected to open looting, theft, expropriation, and colonialist settlement by the Israeli colonialist state, and with unprecedented support from the present American administration and also the Zionist tycoons."

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 21, 2019]

Excavations under the Temple Mount - The Israeli daily Haaretz has stated that the excavations do not reach beneath the mosque: "Despite complaints from the Islamic Movement and Palestinian groups, not a single dig penetrates beneath the [Temple] Mount." [Haaretz, May 24, 2016]